Tibetan Grammar - Grammar Terms

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Articles on Tibetan Grammar

1. Introduction

2. Formation of the Tibetan Syllable

3. Formation of the Tibetan Word

4. First case: ming tsam

5. agentive particle

6. Connective Particle

7. La don particles

8. La don particles—Notes

9. Originative case

10. Verbs

11. Verbs—Notes

12. Syntactic particles

by Stefan J. E.

Grammar Terms

verb

ཐ་དད་པའི་བྱ་ཚིག་ and ཐ་མི་དད་པའི་བྱ་ཚིག་

བྱ་བྱེད་ཐ་དད་པའི་བྱ་ཚིག་ short ཐ་དད་པ་ (lit.) "verb were the action and the doer of the action are different" and
བྱ་བྱེད་ཐ་མི་དད་པའི་བྱ་ཚིག་ short ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ (lit.) "verb were the action and the doer of the action are not different".

Tibetan classification of ཐ་དད་པ་ - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་

• The main factor, as it will be shown below, by which it is determined if a verb is categorized as ཐ་དད་པ་ or ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ is the existence or non- existence of an "agent-voluntary doer of the action".
  

• Important to notice is that this way of categorizing comes with the side effect that, for instance, involuntary verbs of perception and mental activity are categorized as ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ yet they have same grammar as ཐ་དད་པ་ verbs: their agent (subject) marked with agentive case and their theme (object) in ming tsam. On the other hand "verbs expressing 'to make effort, to engage in'" are categorized as ཐ་དད་པ་ while they are not transitive, since these verbs have their theme ("the effort" etc.) lexicalized in the verb and do not have a theme (direct object) in ming tsam but only a direction of the action ("what the effort is toward") marked by a la don.
  

From the "Great Tibetan Chinese Dictionary" བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་: བྱ་བྱེད་ཐ་དད་: རྟགས་ཀྱི་འཇུག་པའི་དགོངས་དོན་ལྟར་དངོས་པོ་གང་ཞིག་ལ་ལས་ཀ་གང་ཞིག་བྱེད་པ་པོ་གཞན་གྱིས་དངོས་སུ་སྒྲུབ་པར་བྱེད་པ།
"'Action and doer different' is, like the intended meaning in the thak jug pa, the doing of whatever work / action in regard to whatever thing by a different (lit. other) doer."

བྱ་བྱེད་ཐ་མི་དད་: རྟགས་ཀྱི་འཇུག་པའི་དགོངས་དོན་ལྟར་དངོས་པོ་གང་ཞིག་ལ་ལས་ཀ་གང་ཞིག་བྱེད་པ་པོ་གཞན་དངོས་སུ་མེད་པར་རང་གི་ངང་གིས་འགྲུབ་པ།
"'Action and doer not different' is, like the intended meaning in the thak jug pa, the naturally coming about of whatever work / action in regard to whatever thing without a different (lit. other) doer."

In short ཐ་དད་པ་ "the action to a thing by a different doer" and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་is the "naturally coming about of the action without a different doer".

ཐ་དད་པ་ and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ are also described through the relation of བདག་ "self" and བཞན་ "other". From the "Great Tibetan Chinese Dictionary" བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་ revering to ཐ་དད་པ་ verbs: རྟག་འཇུག་སྐབས་ཀྱི་བྱེད་པ་པོ་དང་བྱ་བའི་ཡུལ་ཡིན་ལ་དེ་ཡང་བྱེད་པོ་གཙོ་ཕལ་དང་བྱེད་པའི་ལས་བཅས་དངོས་པོ་བདག་གི་ཁོངས་སུ་འདུ་བ་དང༌། བྱ་ཡུལ་བྱ་ལས་དང་བཅས་པ་དངོས་པོ་བཞན་གྱི་ཁོངས་སུ་འདུ།
"In the context of the thak jug': when there is a 'doer' and the 'object of the action to be performed', then the 'principal' (agent) and 'complement' (instrument) which are connected with the བྱེད་པའི་ལས་ 'verb function done by an agent' are included within the category དངོས་པོ་བདག་ 'self thing'. The 'object of the action to be performed' which is connected with བྱ་ལས་ 'action done to the object' is included within the category དངོས་པོ་བཞན་ 'other thing'."

This means, a ཐ་དད་པ་ verb is a verb where there is an agent which is different from the object of the action and with that there is བདག་ (self) and བཞན་ (other) and a connection between the two. Viewed from the agent side there is བྱེད་པའི་ལས་ the action that happens at the time when a transitive agent does something to its object, viewed from the object side there is བྱ་ལས་ the action that will happen to the object - བྱ་ཡུལ་དང་འབྲེལ་བའི་བྱ་བ་ "the deed that is connected with the object". And a ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ verb is a verb where there is no agent with a different object in regard to the action and with that བདག་གཞན་དང་དངོས་སུ་འབྲེལ་བ་མིན། "there is not an actual connection between བདག་ 'self' and བཞན་ 'other'".

Peter Schwieger, H.G.k.t.S., points out, that except for the verbs of motion, existence and living the categories of ཐ་དད་པ་ and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ matches with the differentiation into voluntary and involuntary verbs and that the difference between ཐ་དད་པ་ and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ is made upon the existence or missing of an agens and not the existence or missing of an object.

classification of ཐ་དད་པའི་བྱ་ཚིག་ and ཐ་མི་དད་པའི་བྱ་ཚིག་ in relation to transitive and intransitive in dictionaries

• The main point to notice is that ཐ་དད་པ་ and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ do not one to one correspond to transitive and intransitive and as a result there are mistakes regarding the classification of verbs in many common dictionaries.
  

The བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་ is the most important Tibetan-Tibetan dictionary. It’s classification of verbs into ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ and ཐ་དད་པ་ has been directly copied into more than one Tibetan-English dictionary, using the Latin-derived categories of "intransitive" and "transitive" verbs. Yet it should be noted that some of the verbs which are classified as ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ in the བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་ correspond in terms of grammar to transitive verbs and not to intransitive verbs and some of the verbs which are classified as ཐ་དད་པ་ do not correspond to transitive verbs. Even among the Tibetan grammar treatises there is disagreement about the classification into ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ and ཐ་དད་པ་, for example the unintentional verbs of perception are classified as ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ in the བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་ , but in other Tibetan-grammar treatises considered to be ཐ་དད་པ་ (and they do have the grammar of transitive verbs). The point is that ཐ་དད་པ་ and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ do not one to one correspond to transitive and intransitive and as a result there are mistakes regarding the classification of verbs in many common dictionaries.